Elevator safety appliance.



No. aa7,s2|. A Pa'tented Nqv. 26, 190|.

.1. a. GRACE-v & A. GFELLEn.

ELEvATon SAFETY APPLIANc'E'.

(Application med m. so, 190'1.)

1 (No Model.)

THE cams pasas co.. pHoro-urna. wnsmunrora, 0,1;

4 NTED ,STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES G. GRACEY AND ALFRED GFELLER, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSICNORS TOPOSITIVE ELEVATOR SAFETY COMPANY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI,

A CORPORATION OF MISSOURI.

ELEVATQR SAFETY APPLIANeE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 687,621, dated November1901.

Application iled March 20. 1901. Serial No. 523271. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.- 4

Be it known that We, JAMES Gr. GRACEY and ALFRED GFELLER, citizens ofthe United States, residingat St. Louis, State of Missouri, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Elevator SafetyAppliances, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a1o part hereof.

Our invention has relation .to improvements in elevator safetyappliances; and it consists in the novell construction andarrangement ofparts more fully set forth in the specification and pointed out in theclaims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of our invention withparts broken away, showing also an elevation of the cage or car `and theelevator-shaft. Fig. 2 is a top 2o plan view of the drum and pumps andtheir connections; and Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line 3 3 of Fig.1, taken through the pipes leading from the pump-cylinder.

The present invention is an improvement '"25 both on the constructionshown in United States Letters I atent granted to us under date ofNovember-20, 1900, numbered 662,264, iand on that disclosed in ourpending application, Serial No. 31,690, -iled October l,

.3o l'900,-the new device combining the advantages of both the aforesaidconstructions, but

eliminating the objectionable features thereof, among them beingthe'tendency under or` dinary conditions for the cage to travel un- `35evenly and sometimes with a jerky motion,

this objection resulting from the reciprocations of the pump-pistonactuated by the travel of the cage. In the present device the cagetravels evenly under all circumstances.

In detail the invention may be described asY follows:

Referring to the drawings, l represents `an Aelevator-shaft, and 2 thecage or car traveling therein, the pulling-cable being designated 4; by3. Mounted to one side of the bottom of the shaft is a revolving drum 4,over which are Wound several wraps of a cable 5, one end of which passesover a lower guidingsheave 6 and is connected to the bottom of theelevator-cage, the other end passing over a guiding-sheave 7 at the topof the shaft and connected to the top of the cage to one side of thepoint of connection of the pulling-cable 3. From the connectionsdescribed it is apparent that with the upward travel of the cage thelatter will draw upon one end of the cable 5 and with the descent of thecage the latter will pull upon the opposite end of said cable 5, thusimparting rotation to the drum at all times. A suliicient number ofwraps of the cable 5 are Iirst passed about the drum to prevent slippingof the cable when either end thereof is under tension during the travelof the cage.

Carried by either or both ends of the drumshaft is a crank-arm 8,coupled by a connecting-rod 9 to the piston-rod 10 of an oil-cylinder C,secured to the base-plate of the engine, the Walls of the cylinder beingtapped above and below the limits of the pistons stroke by' pipes 1111', respectively, the opposite ends of said pipes communicating with avertical pipe l2, communicating with the bottom of an open oil vessel orreceiver 13. Communicating with the pipes 11 11 are branch pipes 75 orshunts 14 14', respectively, the opposite ends of said shunts couplingwith an oil-discharge pipe l5, communicating with the vessel 13 at apoint below'the surface 4of the oil contained therein. The pipes 11 1lare provided at a point exterior to the shunts 14 14 withinwardly-swinging gate-valves 16 1G', respectively, and the shunts areprovided with check-valves 17 17', all of ordinary constructions, butshown in section in the drawings. Above the upper shunt the pipe 15 isprovided with a regulating valve or cock 18 of the ordinary faucet type,the particular position to which the same has been set determining therapidity of flow therethrough of the oil forced by the piston of thepumpcylinder into the receiver 13. Beyond the regulating-cock lS-thatis, between it and the receiver 13-the pipe 15 is provided with anemergency or pressure-regulating valve 95 19, also of the Well-knownconstruction and shown herein in section.

The operation of the device is as follows: With the travel of the cagein either direction the pump will be set into operation, the roo pistonrst driving the oilI in one' direction and then the other, the latteralways discharging into the open vessel or receiver 13. With thedownward stroke of the piston the gate-valve 16 is forced to a closedposition and the gatevalve l6 opens, allowing the oil from the receiver13 to follow the piston in such downstroke. The oil below the piston isforced through the pipe 1l', shunt 14', past the checkvalve 17', (thevalve 17 closing under the circumstances,) through the pipe 15 past thevalves 18 and 19, into the receiver v13. With the upstroke of the pistonthe gate-valve16 is forced to a closed position, the gate-valve 16opening and allowing the oil from the receiver 13 to follow the pistonin such upstroke. The oil above the piston is forced through the pipe11, shunt 14, past the check 17 (the check 17 closing under thecircumstances,) through the pipe 15, past the valves 18 and 19, into thereceiver 13. The valve or cock 18 is set or opened sufticien tly toallow for the uninterrupted ow of the oil past it at a rate commensuratewith the normal speed of the cage, the emergency-valve 19 being open toits full extent, so as not to interfere with such flow. Should the cagefor any reason become overloaded, however, and the valve 18 becomeinsufficient to resist any abnormal fiow under the circumstances, theexcess of pressure of .the oil will then tend to partially or whollyclose theemergency-valve, (being virtually a pressure-regulating valve,)thus allowing the oil to discharge at a rate which will either check atoo-rapid descent of the cage or stop it altogether, thus indicatingthat the same has been overloaded. The spring of the emergency-valve canbe set to any tension, as is obvious.

Jith our present apparatus the'cage is permitted to travel without anyperceptible jerks, a uniform and even travel being always insured, onereason for this result being the fact that the oil is always dischargedinto an open vessel 4and not forced back and forth from one end of thecylinder to the other, as is the case of the construction described inour pending application above referred' to.

It is apparent, of course, that the present device may be used inconnection with any character of elevators, hoisting apparatus, inclinedrailways, and the like. It is further apparent that minor changes may beresorted to without departing from the spirit of our invention.

-Having described our invention, what we claim is 1. In yan elevatorsafety appliance, a cage or car, a liquid-pump located at a pointremoved from the cage, a drum mounted in connection with the pump, acable wound about the drum and having its opposite ends secured to thecage, means for guiding said cable, intermediate connections between thedrum and pump for operating the latter upon the travel of the cage ineither direction, and a vessel for receiving the liquid operated by thepu' rnp with each stroke of the piston there-` of, substantially as setforth.

2. In an elevator safety appliance,- a cage or car, a liquid-pumplocated at a point removed from the cage, a drum mounted in connectionwith the pump, a cable wound about the drum and having its opposite endssecured to the cage, means for guiding said cable, intermediateconnections between the drum and pump for operating the latter upon thetravel of the cage in either direction, and

an open vessel for receiving th'e liquid operated by the pumpsubstantially as set forth.

3. In an elevator safety appliance, a liquidpum p adapted to beoperatedby the cage during its travel in either direction, a vessel for holdingand receiving the liquid operated by the pump, a series of pipes leadingfrom the pump-cylinder, one on each side of the limits of the stroke ofthe piston and connecting with the vessel, a valve in each pipe forpermitting the ow of the liquid from the vessel behind the piston duringthe reciprocations of the latter, a shunt leading from each of theaforesaid pipes, a discharge-pipe communicating with said shunts andwith the vessel, check-valves in said shunts, and a regulating valve orcock in said discharge-pipe loL cated at a point between the adjacentcheck'- valve and vessel, the parts operating substantially as and forthe purpose set forth.

4. In an elevator safety appliance, a liquidpump adapted to be operatedby the .cage during its travel in either direction, a vessel for holdingand receiving the liquid operated by the pump, a series of two pipesleading from the pump-cylinder, one on each side of the limits of thestroke of the piston and communicating with the vessel, a gate-valve ineach pipe for permitting the iow of the liquid from the vessel behindthe piston during the reciprocations of the latter, a shunt leading fromeach of the aforesaid pipes, a discharge-pipe communicating with saidshunts and with the vessel, check-valves in said shunts, a regulatingvalve or cock in said discharge-pipe located at a point between theadjacent check-valve and the vessel, and an emergency-valve in thedischarge-pipe located between the regulating-valve and the vessel, theparts operating substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

5. In an elevatork safety appliance, a cage vor car, a liquid-pumpconnected thereto and operated thereby during the travel of the cage `ineither direction, and a vessel connected with the pump-cylinder forreceiving the liquid operated by the pump with each stroke of thepiston, substantially as set forth.

6. In anV elevator safety appliance, a cage or car,a liquid-pump locatedat a point removed from the cage, a drum mounted in connection with thepump, a cable wound about the drum'and having its opposite ends securedto the cage, intermediate connections between the drum and pump foroperating the latter upon the travel of the cage in either loedirection, anda vessel for receiving the liquid operated by the pump,substantially as set forth.

7. In an elevator safety appliance, a cage or car, a liquid-pump locatedat a point removed from the cage, a drum mounted in connection with thepump, a cable wound about the drum and having its opposite ends securedto the cage, intermediate connections between the drum and pump foroperating the latter upon the travel of the cage in either direction,and a vessel for receiving the liquid operated by the pump with eachstroke of the piston thereof, substantially as set forth.

8. In an elevator safety appliance, a cage or car, a liquid-pump locatedat a point re- JAMES G. GRACEY. ALFRED GFELLER.

Witnesses -EMIL STAREK, MARGUERITE SMooT.

